Chemical boundary engineering

A new route toward lean, ultrastrong yet ductile steels

Journal article (2020)

Authors

Ran Ding Tsinghua University
Geng Liu Tsinghua University
Xinhao Wan Tsinghua University
Dirk Ponge Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung
Dierk Raabe Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung
Andy Godfrey Tsinghua University
Tadashi Furuhara Tohoku University
Zhigang Yang Tsinghua University
S. van der Zwaag Tsinghua University, Novel Aerospace Materials - Aerospace Engineering
More Authors... External organisation
Research Group
Novel Aerospace Materials (Aerospace Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2020 Ran Ding, Geng Liu, Xinhao Wan, Dirk Ponge, Dierk Raabe, Andy Godfrey, Tadashi Furuhara, Zhigang Yang, S. van der Zwaag, More Authors
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay1430
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Published Date

2020

Language

English

Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Structures & Materials

Research Group

Novel Aerospace Materials

Abstract

For decades, grain boundary engineering has proven to be one of the most effective approaches for tailoring the mechanical properties of metallic materials, although there are limits to the fineness and types of microstructures achievable, due to the rapid increase in grain size once being exposed to thermal loads (low thermal stability of crystallographic boundaries). Here, we deploy a unique chemical boundary engineering (CBE) approach, augmenting the variety in available alloy design strategies, which enables us to create a material with an ultrafine hierarchically heterogeneous microstructure even after heating to high temperatures. When applied to plain steels with carbon content of only up to 0.2 weight %, this approach yields ultimate strength levels beyond 2.0 GPa in combination with good ductility (>20%). Although demonstrated here for plain carbon steels, the CBE design approach is, in principle, applicable also to other alloys.